


Yellow Chrysanthemums, Old Swing Sets and You

by baeconandeggs, ripefruityeolda



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Cheating, Comedy, Depression, Fluff, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, M/M, Pining, Romance, Slice of Life, Tragedy, Trigger warning for mention of Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeconandeggs/pseuds/baeconandeggs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ripefruityeolda/pseuds/ripefruityeolda
Summary: Yellow, yellow was the first thing he saw as soon as he woke up and finally a pain in his chest struck him.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 19
Kudos: 99
Collections: BAE2020





	Yellow Chrysanthemums, Old Swing Sets and You

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** BAE325  
>  **Disclaimer: baeconandeggs/the mods is/are not the author/s of this story. Authors will be credited and tagged after reveals.** The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
> 
> **Author's Note:** Hello, this is my second year joining the fest and being a nuisance so I first just want to thank all of my beta writers, lavender, yellow and especially to peach who stayed up with me all throughout the process of making this fic. Nothing would have been possible without them and of course, the mods who are always so understanding despite everything. The fic isn't much and there are some things I wish I could improve on, some scenes and inclusion of characters. Maybe on better circumstances, perhaps. Anyway, thank you so much to anyone who will read and take interest in this fic. I really hope you like it and leave a comment if you do! I love to hear feedback!
> 
> Here's a playlist you can listen to; 
> 
> Again, thank you, sorry and enjoy!
> 
> find me @betootie on twitter since ripefruityeolda is suspended right now :(

Yellow, yellow was the first thing he saw as soon as he woke up and finally a pain in his chest struck him. 

_ Hanahaki disease is an illness born from unrequited love. _

_ The disease creates a nest for itself inside the lungs, branches crawling, and growing with flowers of yellow and stains of red. _

_ Early stages may present symptoms of a sore throat. In the late stages, patients with this disease will experience nausea and vomiting, frequent migraines, excessive coughing, and chest pain accompanied by bloody sputum and vomit. _

_ Side effects of this disease are depression and anxiety. If the disease is caught in the late stages, and not taken care of by an expert it may lead to suffocation then death. _

\--

Yellow. Yellow has always been Baekhyun’s favorite color. Aside from the fact that it would give him little tingles in his chest whenever he would see his favorite person wear the color - It was bright and vibrant; a color of happiness.

But that day, when he woke up with yellow all over his hands he couldn’t help but feel pain accompanied by disgust. It was painful to see yellow with splatters of what looked like his blood. Scattered across the sea of yellow are hints of red, dark red. His eyes started to water as his throat dried up, he’s finally getting his answer.

With another cough comes out a cloud of yellow petals slowly falling to the ground, Baekhyun sinks down to the floor as he sobs. He knew it. Taewoo wouldn't tell him the truth but his body gave him the answer. 

Clearing his throat, he pushes away the bunch of flowers in front of him and wipes away his tears.  _ He doesn't have time for this.  _ Baekhyun thinks.

With the most painful sigh, he stands up and starts cleaning up the mess he made. Of all people,  _ why. _ Why did he have to suffer this kind of pain? All he did was love fearlessly and yet all he got in return was this.  _ This fucking disease _ . 

There was a continuous flow of silence in the apartment, Baekhyun was focused on leaving. This is the best for him and Taewoo doesn't deserve an explanation. 

Finally sighing for the last time, suitcase in one hand; he leaves a single petal on his pillow on their shared bed.  _ Yellow. _

Baekhyun walks out the door dead set on disappearing completely from his now ex-fiancé.

With a newly gained determination, Baekhyun seeks out a nearby motel he can stay for the night and picks up a few bottles of wine on the way.

Once he is settled inside the room, he opens his laptop and types in  _ Hanahaki Disease Specialists near me. _

He finds one doctor at a hospital 20 minutes away called Dr. Kim Minseok. He books an appointment for tomorrow and decides to get some shut-eye.

\--

Baekhyun wakes up in another flurry of yellow and red.  _ Fuck,  _ he thinks. Coughing for another few minutes before rolling off the bed lifelessly  _ I mean I guess at least I’m alive. _

He checks his phone and stares at the time; 7:26. Too early. He unlocks the phone and scrolls at the notifications filled with texts and missed calls from his ex. He laughs and clicks at the messages.

_ “Hey baby where are you?” _

_ “Baekhyun?” _

_ “Baekhyun what happened where are you?” _

_ “Can we at least talk?” _

_ “Let me explain.” _

Baekhyun scoffs, “Let me explain? This fucking asshole has the nerve to try and explain this disease away like it’s possible?”

He deletes all the messages and missed calls and blocks the number from his phone and starts to get ready for the day.

Removing his clothes from last night he steps into the hot shower and lets his body relax against the current of the water.

\--

With his suitcase and all of his belongings in tow, Baekhyun drags himself towards the hospital. People were looking weirdly at him and at this point he didn’t care anymore.

Yes, he shouldn’t be bringing all of his stuff with him to the hospital but he’s basically homeless now. Grumbling at this thought he approaches the receptionist.

Still a little breathless, Baekhyun speaks, “Hi, I have an appointment with Dr. Kim Minseok, may I have his floor and office number?”

“Hi, yeah just a second,” the receptionist replies. “May I have your name, sir?”

“Byun, Baekhyun,” he says, clearing his throat trying to hold his cough.

After a few attempts of trying to restrain his cough, he releases a small rasp and with it, a puff of yellow petals are expelled from the depths of his throat.

“Fuck.” Baekhyun continues to cough, pounding at the pain from his chest and making a mess of the hospital lobby; he wipes at the blood coming from his mouth and faces the worried receptionist.

“Sorry,” Baekhyun apologizes as he runs his fingers through his hair in frustration.

The receptionist smiles at him understandingly and hands him a tissue and a piece of sticky note. “That’s okay; we’ll take care of it. Dr. Kim’s details are on the note you can go up ahead to his office.”

Baekhyun takes the tissue and wipes his mouth nodding along to what the receptionist was saying; still embarrassed he looks up from the piece of paper and thanks her. “Thank you, uh…” he hesitates, trying to read the name of the receptionist on her name tag.

“Irene,” the receptionist smiles again, “Uh- right, thanks, Irene.” Baekhyun smiles back timidly and proceeds to drag himself and all of his things towards the elevator.

_ ‘5 _ _ th _ _ floor, room 512’ _ the paper reads. Baekhyun gets off on the fifth floor and walks towards the direction of the office door. Once he arrives he knocks and pushes open the white wooden door of the office.

“Hi, I’m here for an appointment scheduled for 9 am,” Baekhyun says to the secretary.

“Oh yes, Mr. Byun? Irene called in your arrival. Take a seat sir; you’ll be called in next.”

The office was plain, not too many decorations, just white and a little splash of browns here and there from the frames on the wall of Dr. Kim’s Certifications. There were two other people in the room aside from him and the secretary. One had a buzz cut and had eyes like an owl, looking out the window situated left of him.

The other guy was wearing a mask and brown hoodie, hair covering most of his forehead, looking at the clock ticking above the actual office door reading 8:50.

Baekhyun clears his throat again and sits at the chair nearest to the door.

“What are you here for? And why do you have all that stuff?” the guy in the brown hoodie speaks removing his facemask revealing his chapped lips.

Baekhyun is dumbfounded for a second as the guy with a buzz cut taps the brown-hoodie  guy on his shoulder. “That’s rude,” he quietly speaks and goes back to looking out the window.

“I was just asking y’know he could be going to the same place we are. I’m Jongin by the way and this is Kyungsoo,” he points to the guy next to him.

“So what brings you here?” he prods.

“I- uh, I’m sick I guess.”

“Why?”

“My ex cheated on me.”

The guy now named Jongin whistles, “Wow, must be hard.”

Baekhyun shrugs, “I just found out yesterday, you?”

“Oh it’s been 3 weeks now, I think. Right Kyungsoo?” Jongin nudges Kyungsoo and the boy nods in agreement, “And it’s been 2 months for him.” Jongin points at Kyungsoo with his thumb.

Kyungsoo then glares at how loud Jongin is.  _ I mean he really didn’t have to say how long it’s been. _

Jongin catches the glare. “Oops sorry,” he giggles, “Dr. Minseok’s really good. We’re gonna get better soon.”

“Right, Soo?” Jongin again, nudges Kyungsoo at his question but this time it’s taking him long to respond, “Right?” Jongin asks worriedly.

Kyungsoo just sighs and moves away slightly. Jongin frowns and looks away.

“It’s 9 now. I think you’re about to go in,” Jongin says at Baekhyun.

With a confused but warm smile, Baekhyun nods at Jongin and stands up leaving his belongings on the couch. “Hey, would mind watching this for me?” he asks the olive-skinned boy.

Jongin with a smile then nods and signals towards the door, just in time, Dr. Minseok’s head pops out from inside his office, “Patient Byun?”

Baekhyun acknowledges the call and walks towards the doctor, “Yes hi.”

“Okay, come on in. Let’s get into it.” He smiles a gummy smile and leads Baekhyun into his office.

It felt a little homier than the lobby and it was definitely warmer. “By the way, I’m Dr. Kim Minseok,” he stretches his hand out for a handshake, “You can call me Dr. Kim or Dr. Minseok, whichever suits you best. So, Baekhyun — can I call you Baekhyun?” Baek nods. “What seems to be the problem?” Dr. Minseok asks.

So he proceeds to reiterate the events leading up to his consultation with little to no enthusiasm in his voice.

“And here we are,” Baekhyun finishes and leans back against the chair.

“Okay now let me check your lungs.”

Dr. Minseok approaches Baekhyun ready with his stethoscope and warns him that the metal would be a little cold against his skin. He brushes off the statement and sits still for the assessment.

A few struggled inhales and exhales later, Dr. Kim pulls away with a soft frown on his face.  _ It probably didn’t sound too good. _

“So you told me this happened just yesterday?” Dr. Kim scratches his nape.

Baekhyun replies with a hum and Dr. Kim sighs, “Well your lungs didn’t sound too good for a day old disease.”

“You see, the disease creates a nest for itself inside the lungs, branches crawling and growing with flowers of yellow damaging the lung tissue causing bloody phlegm and, at times, vomit; and from what it sounds like, it’s already got a good grip around the system. Of course, we wouldn’t know for sure until we get an x-ray but it seems like we have to get into treatment as fast as we can.” Dr. Kim’s frown deepens as he points towards Baekhyun’s chest then gazes up to look for eye contact.

Baekhyun’s heart beats hard within the walls of his chest and his hands start to get sweaty. He’s starting to panic but he tries to calm himself down by rubbing his clammy hands against the fabric of his jeans.

“So what should we do?” Baekhyun asks shakily

The doctor offers him a soft smile and hands him a little pamphlet, the front page was donned with a picture of the blue sky and across it a cheesy quote saying  _ ‘light up the darkness within you.’ _

Baekhyun scrunches his nose and looks up at the doctor in question. “I know it’s a little cheesy.” He chuckles “But, it will help you. I only accept a few and only those who are willing to get better”

“It’s rehab. It’s gonna keep you in shape. Group therapy sessions with them and weekly solo sessions with me. You’ll have daily check-ups to monitor your condition and to determine how we can tackle this disease better.”

Baekhyun slowly flips at the pages and sees pictures of the rehab and like the office, it was a lot homier than expected and well because it’s an actual house.

It looked pretty big from the picture and he wondered how many people like him — with the disease — currently stay there. Then he remembers the two from outside, “Um, are those two outside going to the rehab too?” 

The doctor smiles at him and answers, “Yes actually they are. So what do you say?”

Baekhyun looks back down at the brochure and nods silently, finally speaking in a small voice, “I want to get better.” 

\-- 

Baekhyun had nowhere else to go after the checkup so he immediately decided to get admitted and ended up walking with Kyungsoo and Jongin to the van picking them up to head straight to the place. He walked with firm, determined steps while Jongin who was next to him kept on telling stories which continued into the car.

In the car, Baekhyun finds out that Jongin and Kyungsoo were actually childhood friends. Kyungsoo would be silent most of the time looking out the window occasionally nodding at his friend’s queries as Jongin excitedly converses with Baekhyun about everything and anything he could think of. The cause of them having to experience the same thing was never mentioned though and Baekhyun wondered how unfortunate could these two friends be with love that they ended up having the disease. 

They arrive at the rehab after an hour and a bright tall girl, in red lipstick, solid bangs and long straight hair wearing a white shirt and dark jeans instantly approaches them as soon as they open the doors to the van. 

“Hi welcome, you all must be: Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin. I’m nurse Joy and I’ll be here to tour you around, orient you with house rules and get you settled into your rooms!” she beams at the three of them while another guy in black this time walks towards their direction, “Oh this is nurse Chanyeol by the way,” Joy introduces the tall guy with big ears, who immediately smiles and waves at the three as his name gets mentioned.

“Do you need help with that? I’ll take it up to your room,” Chanyeol asks, pointing at the luggage in Baekhyun’s hands.

“Uhh,” Baekhyun doesn't know what to say until Chanyeol just grabs the suitcase from him, “Hey uh you really don’t have to—”

“Don’t worry about it.” The nurse chuckles and easily carries all his stuff away and into the house. 

Seeing how dumbfounded Baekhyun looked with the interaction, Joy diverts their attention by initiating the tour, “Alright let’s start!”

“So this is the house, obviously,” Joy laughs at her statement, “It consists of two floors, all bedrooms are upstairs, there are 3 bathrooms, 2 upstairs and one down on the first floor.” They continued to walk and were greeted by a house that was decorated like a traditional home. Joy eventually led the boys to the living room, “So this is our space for group sessions. We tend to lean towards making everything feel like home so we have blankets and a lot of pillows as you can see.” Moving on to the dining area they reach a group of people, probably fellow patients, gathered near the gas stove cooking something together. “This is the dining area and kitchen; we usually have a designated cooker every week so everyone gets a chance to help out with the food. And those people over there are also here like you.” 

The people cooking finally turn to the direction of the voice and warmly greet them with smiles, “Joy!!! Are they the new family members?” Joy nods at the question and tells them to introduce themselves.

An ecstatic blonde haired girl approaches the trio, “Hi, I’m Yeri. It's so nice to meet you guys!” the pretty girl exclaims, emanating a welcoming aura. 

“Finally new people, I've been dying to chat with someone other than boring ass Sehun over there,” she fumes as she glances at a pale looking boy in the kitchen island to catch him rolling his eyes.

The boy stands up from the countertop chair, who surprisingly has a tall stature considering his young face, and approaches the three boys.

“Hey,” he waves slightly as he mutters in a dead tone.

The lady that was cooking had seemed to be done with her dish. “Sehun! Don't be like that to them, we all know you're a baby,” Seulgi teases the tall boy as she squeezes the black haired boy's cheeks.

Sehun appears to be embarrassed that they were teasing him, and looks as if they ruined his vibe.

Seulgi chuckles as if this was all too familiar for her. “Oh! Sorry for being too abrupt. I almost forgot to introduce myself; I'm Seulgi by the way. I hope we can be good friends!” Seulgi happily addressed.

“You guys should introduce yourselves too!” Joy cheerfully adds.  Baekhyun usually feels uncomfortable sharing things about himself but Dr. Minseok's face and words kept popping up in his head, _ ‘What do we say?’ ‘I want to get better’  _ so Baekhyun readies himself for his turn.

The olive-skinned boy pipes up first, “Hi, I'm Kim Jongin and I hope we can all get better together,” he bows as a sign of respect with the look of hope painted across his face.

A brief moment of silence echoed across the room. “Nice to meet you all, I'm Baekhyun I hope we all get along,” the peachy looking boy softly mutters.

The last boy looking dazed clears his throat. “I'm Do Kyungsoo, let's take care of ourselves well,” the buzz cut boy murmurs shyly.

Joy smiles as she clasps her hands, “Now, that you've all introduced yourselves to each other it's time to continue forward,” she explains calmly.

“See you later!” Yeri hollers to the lot as they continue on to the tour. 

After the trip to the kitchen, Joy asks them to follow her upstairs to show them the bedrooms they were staying at, “So this is where you’ll be sleeping and while we’re here, we’re gonna talk about house rules: first is you have to surrender your phones for the first week, internet connection would not be accessible until you earn a ticket of fortune; you can either win a ticket to go out for the day or have your gadgets back. It really depends on the points you get for being a good member of the household. In addition to this, you are assigned one chore every week so that you can somehow help in maybe cleaning or cooking it’s really up to you and what you’re good at. Beds should be kept clean and tidy, you can design your part of the room anyway you want as long as you respect each other's spaces. We’ll have group therapy sessions three times a week with either Dr. Wendy or Dr. Junmyeon, and all of you would be scheduled for a solo session with Dr. Minseok once a week. We will check vital signs everyday and also have physical exams and lab tests done every first and last Friday of the month and of course before we get settled we’ll have to check you for all of these,” Joy continuously explains without rest while all three of them nod in silent understanding.

“Okay good and oh we’ll have bag checks for any sharp objects and any kind of medication, since we will be the ones providing all the medication you need but of course we’ll get to that later. Let’s head to Jongdae first so we can start with the physical exam. Any questions so far?” 

“Nope,” Jongin chimes excitedly, “Let’s go!” 

Baekhyun smiles at Jongin’s brightness and follows Joy to wherever Jongdae was.

They arrive at a room labeled  _ ‘exam room’  _ and are asked to wait outside until they are called in. Baekhyun and the other two sit at the wooden bench situated next to the door and patiently wait for their names to be called. 

“Baekhyun, you’re first,” a deep voice calls at his name. When he looks up, he sees nurse Chanyeol from earlier, head peeking through the door of the exam room smiling. 

Baekhyun breathes in deeply and instead of getting relief, his throat itches which makes him cough against his will releasing a flurry of flowers yet again making both boys with him look at his direction sympathetically.  _ He really fucking hates this. _ He frowns and starts kneeling to clean up the mess he made but then someone gently guides him to stand up. 

“That’s okay; we’ll clean that up later. Come on in,” Chanyeol continued to smile at him brightly. 

Still frowning, he follows Chanyeol into the exam room leaving the scatter of bloody yellow flowers on the floor.

\--

“Hi Baekhyun, I’m Jongdae. How are you?” The medtech smiles as soon as he walks in. 

“I’m alright,” he answers in a raspy voice.

“Well, I'm the assigned medtech for today — well the only medtech that will be assigned here — and I’m gonna be taking some of your blood for some tests while Chanyeol here will do the vital signs and physical exam. If you have any questions about the procedure don't be scared to ask okay?”

Baekhyun clears his throat and nods at the man.

“I’ll let Chanyeol go first okay? Since his doesn’t involve needles.” He chuckles and goes to prepare his stuff.

As Jongdae leaves, Chanyeol takes his place in front of Baekhyun, “Here’s a gown you can wear while we do the exam, and I’ll close the curtains and tell me when you’re ready.”

Once the curtains are closed, Baekhyun slowly releases a quiet sigh. He removes his clothes one by one and neatly folds them at the corner of the exam table. “I’m done," he speaks, voice still a little hoarse from the flowers he expelled earlier.

When Chanyeol opens the curtains back up, he greets Baekhyun with a cup of water in hand, “This might help with your throat.” 

Baekhyun looked up at Chanyeol and he thought that if his eyes could sparkle it would be doing that right now. “T-thank you.” His face flushes from surprise and grabs the cup from the nurse’s big hands. 

“No problem, so shall we start?” Chanyeol smiles again 

Baekhyun smiles back at the tall nurse and thinks what a bright person he is for someone wearing this much black.

\--

It’s been a week and the boys have noticeably grown closer to all the staff and people residing in the rehab; but Baekhyun especially has grown significantly closer to one of the staff members, Park Chanyeol.

One morning during breakfast, the group was quietly eating the food that apparently Chanyeol made. Silently seated next to Baekhyun is the cook in question, watching the pink haired boy eat his well-prepared meal. As Baekhyun continues to eat, he notices Chanyeol at the corner of his eyes still staring at him so he turns to the nurse and looks at him weirdly, “What?” he chuckles.

Chanyeol’s eyes widen in panic “I, uh sorry,” his ears redden, finally facing his plate shoving a mountain of food into his mouth.

Baekhyun giggles at how silly Chanyeol looked and hands him a glass of water, “The food is good Chanyeollie, what are you so worried for?”

The nurse coughs at the statement and Baekhyun pats his back while continuing to giggle at the giant’s plight. 

“This is disrespectful for the other people in the room y’know,” Yeri chimes in sneering at the two jokingly.

Baekhyun pouts cutely at Yeri. “Whyyy,” he whines while stomping his sock-clad feet. 

Everyone at the table laughs at Baekhyun’s antics and proceeds to finish their meal to start their day. 

After breakfast, both Chanyeol and Baekhyun gather all the plates to wash them since Baekhyun is trying to earn points to get his phone back. 

“Hey Baek, can you grab that for me?” Chanyeol points at the glass that was on Baekhyun’s right side.

He turns away to grab the glass and as he is about to hand it to Chanyeol, he is met with fingers covered in bubbles against his cheeks. 

“Hey!” Baekhyun exclaims as he spits out the bubbles that got into his mouth too. He then grabs some bubbles from the sink and smears it across Chanyeol’s face.

“No, shit,” Chanyeol laughs loudly while he tries to move away from Baekhyun’s hands. 

They continue to chase each other inside the kitchen releasing excited squeals here and there until Chanyeol eventually catches Baekhyun and keeps him still in between his arms still cackling at their shenanigans.

“What the hell is this mess?” a voice suddenly asks

Both heads turn to the voice in surprise and immediately pull apart from each other. 

Joy clicks her tongue at the two boys, “Stop playing around and clean this mess.” 

“Yes ma’am,” Chanyeol salutes snickering along with Baekhyun. As he turns to get a rag to clean the bubbles that got onto the kitchen island, the tall nurse hears Baekhyun breathe in and release a cough.

“Shit are you okay?” Chanyeol asks the smaller, instantly jumping to Baekhyun’s side who was bent over holding onto the kitchen counter for support, still coughing his lungs away. 

“Yeah,” still releasing flowers from his mouth, “I’m sorry,” Baekhyun says.

Chanyeol frowns at the pink haired boy’s response, “What are you sorry for, this is not your fault.” 

Joy witnessing the exchange, rushes to the refrigerator to get a glass of water for Baekhyun. Chanyeol continues to rub Baekhyun’s back while he drinks, reaching for his own back pocket for Baekhyun’s inhaler. “Here,” he hands Baekhyun the object right as he finishes drinking and guides his hands to administer the medicine. 

“Sorry,” Chanyeol says this time and Baekhyun answers with the shake of his head and a soft smile, “Don’t be. Thank you.”

“Alright that’s enough, Chanyeol you finish up here. I’ll bring Baekhyun to the living room, we're gonna start with the group session.” Joy stretches a hand out to Baekhyun and leads him out of the kitchen. 

Before stepping out and disappearing from Chanyeol’s sight, the smaller turns his head to face the taller and mouth a  _ sorry _ , sending him a guilty smile. Chanyeol brushes off the gesture and returns a bright smile to the boy proceeding to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

\--

Group sessions were just about to start when Baekhyun arrived at the living room and as per usual Jongin and Kyungsoo were sitting next to each other, unsure about where to take a seat he walked to the only empty seat in the circle and it was next to Sehun. “Hey,” Baekhyun greets the younger, voice still a little raspy from the earlier mishap.

Sehun nods at the older in acknowledgement and scoots away to give Baekhyun more space on the couch. Baekhyun smiles and gently takes a seat next to him.

“Alright! Now that everyone is gathered, shall we start?” Everyone replies in a chorus of yeses and nods which causes Dr. Wendy to smile. 

“I know you all know each other very well now, but let’s start with a small introduction and why you’re here today. Okay Yeri you start,” Wendy points at the blond seated next to Seulgi.

“Hi I’m Yeri; I’m here because life could be better.”

As the introduction approaches Jongin, Baekhyun notices the boy fiddling with the ends of his shirt, it wasn't unusual to be nervous in these things but for Jongin who was usually up for any type of conversation, it looked a little odd for Baekhyun as a mere observer. When it finally came his time to introduce, Jongin nervously smiles at the circle of eight. “Hi,” he giggles, “I’m Jongin, I’m here because someone I love doesn’t feel the same for me and I want to get better,” he truthfully states, looking down again and nudging Kyungsoo's feet signaling him to get on with the introduction. 

“I’m Kyungsoo, same reason,” he says as he points his thumb at Jongin's direction; and then, it was finally Baekhyun’s turn.

“Hi um, I’m Baekhyun. I'm here because my fiancé cheated on me,” he says weakly this time it was him looking for something else to focus on rather than the stares of those with him.

“We’re here for you Baekhyun,” Dr. Wendy smiles warmly at the boy and nods at Sehun to conclude the small activity.

“I’m Sehun.”

The group laughs after a long pause expecting the youngest to elaborate more on why he was there but well he was Sehun after all. 

Dr. Wendy laughs softly along with them and shakes her head, “Okay then, is anyone up for sharing how they feel today?”

Baekhyun zones out for a little bit as the doctor asks the question and thinks about how he really feels. 

The more he thinks about it, he really doesn't know. It's been a week since he arrived and he feels so detached from the ‘break up’ that he just feels numb. 

“Baekhyun? Are you okay?” He gets snapped out of his thoughts when he feels Sehun poking his shoulder, “I'm sorry what?”

“Would you like to share anything? Experiences, feelings?” Dr. Wendy prods.

“Um maybe a little later,” Baekhyun grimaces.

“Sure, of course, I guess we could start with Jongin? Anything you'd like to share?” the doctor nods and turns to face him.

“Me?” Jongin asks.

“Yes you,” Dr. Wendy smiles warmly.

“Uh well, I feel fine I guess.” The boy shrugs. “I guess you're all just curious why the person I love doesn't love me back and I just wanna say that you and I both have the same dilemma. Kyungsoo doesn't really know much about it because we were studying in different universities at that time, but I just fell in love with this guy. It was dumb of me but we were always together and I just thought he would feel the same cause we just clicked like that and I guess I was wrong so here we are,” Jongin rambles.

Something about Jongin's story felt odd, it lacked something and even Kyungsoo was looking at him with questioning eyes as if it was the first time he was hearing the story. Dr. Wendy hummed along to Jongin's short explanation but Baekhyun felt like the story didn't sit right with him or even with Jongin himself, still avoiding eye contact and playing with the drawstrings of his hoodie. 

“Thank you for sharing your story Jongin. That was very brave of you.” Dr. Wendy offers a warm smile.

The boy in his cream hoodie just nods and sinks himself further down the couch.

”Anyone else?”

Everyone stays silent looking at each other hoping for someone to volunteer so that they won't get called. 

“Um I guess I can share now,” Baekhyun mutters under his voice

“Oh yes Baekhyun, what would you like to talk about?”

“I just — it’s been what, 7 days? Yet I don't know why it feels like such a distant memory. When I’m alone, I'm suddenly numb and all I see is him. My chest hurts with every thought but my eyes are dry, my face emotionless. I don't know why 7 days ago feels so far away. I don't know why the pain has become somewhat dull. Maybe this is me starting to be okay again. But I’m also scared for the time I finally feel the raw pain of this,” Baekhyun trails, finally noticing how he’d been rambling for the past minute or so his face reddens, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, go on.” 

Baekhyun gulps and looks at everyone listening to him and notices Chanyeol near the entrance of the room, the nurse smiles at him — a silent encouragement of sorts.

The pink-haired boy slowly inhales trying to avoid his throat getting irritated again. “And uh, well, I just can’t help but look back at the way he and I used to be and I’d start to think how much he really loved me and if I’ll be able to love and be loved again. Everything is so unsure right now and there is so much uncertainty with the way I am. He took a big part of my soul with him and now I just really don’t know where to go from where he left me. Well technically I left but you know.” Baekhyun shrugs and pulls his legs up, tucking his knees under his chin looking for Chanyeol to see if he was still there, and he was; now leaning against the wall, still offering him the softest smile, and Baekhyun feels a little better now for letting all of that out. 

The session went on normally as it should and before he knew it, he’s learned so much about those who stay with him battling the same disease. He found out that Yeri’s significant other left her for his career and Seulgi developed hanahaki because of her girlfriend who just couldn’t love her the way she did. 

It was now late afternoon; Baekhyun is lying on his bed reading a book that he found available in the bookshelves near the recreational area of the home.

Fascinated by its concept of an alternate universe taken over by robots and a dystopian reality and 9 people from a different timeline are tasked to fix it facing an alternate version of themselves who had started all of this chaos. 

He continues reading the book, as he feels his stomach grumble. Great, now he's hungry. He turns over, stuffs his face into a pillow and groans; after getting his phone back for 350 points, he and Chanyeol would use their phones more often especially when they both had different things to do.

Right then, he suddenly hears a notification from his phone, the peckish boy opens the notification to see a message from Chanyeol.

_ “Are you hungry?” _

Confused at how Chanyeol knew, he tried to keep it nonchalant nonetheless, and replied with the obvious answer of  _ 'yes' _ .

Less than 10 minutes later, Baekhyun gets a knock on the door. “Guess who?” the taller boy chuckles behind the door, “I can clearly see you Chanyeol we literally cannot close the door.”

“May I come in then, Baekhyun?” Chanyeol chuckles, the floorboards creak and whine as the bubbly nurse makes his way inside the room.

He sits up from the bed and to his surprise, two slices of pizza and some lemonade on a wooden tray. “Whoa, snack time I guess?” Baekhyun mutters as the tall nurse lays the tray on his bed.

Jongin sees the scene unfold from his side of the room. “Baekhyun and Chanyeol sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” he snorts and almost immediately gets hit by a pillow thrown at 30kmph to his face. “OUCH, why'd you do that?!” Jongin whines at the boy seated by the window. “Doesn't that seem too invasive, Jongin?” Kyungsoo reacts.

Chanyeol chuckles at Jongin's attempt, “I honestly don't mind, right Baekhyun?” He side-eyes the boy. Baekhyun turns bright red at the little interaction, stammering to get his words out, “W-why don't we just eat our snacks? After all, that's what you came here for.” 

They spend a good thirty minutes eating the hot pizza in the shared bedroom of the four boys.

“Are you done?” Chanyeol asks.

“Yeah, why?” the fair skinned boy answers.

“Why don't we get some fresh air?” the nurse suggests.

“Why not? I'm itching to get these legs walking,” he eagerly replies.

After having their little snack, the two decide to hang out in the backyard; Baekhyun sitting on the old swing set gently moving back and forth using his feet while Chanyeol sits on the grass just next to the pole. 

They’re just quiet for some time, until Chanyeol clears his throat. “Uh, so.” 

“So?” Baekhyun prods at the taller, kicking at the grass 

“You did good,” Chanyeol finally says. 

“Good? Where?” Baekhyun stops the swing from moving with his feet and gets up to sit next to Chanyeol.

“Earlier I mean, during the group session,” the nurse adds.

“Yeah, I guess but that wasn't even half of it.” He pauses looking at the grass. “I mean I said a lot but I really wonder about a lot of things.” he says pulling at the grass.

“What do you wonder about?” He asks gently, looking at how Baekhyun had his hair hovering over his eyes, wind lightly blowing over them.

“I really don’t wanna dump all of this baggage on you Yeol.” He frowns facing the big eared nurse.

“It’s okay; I don’t mind listening to those little thoughts of yours.” Chanyeol says while fixing Baekhyun’s bangs that have gotten quite disheveled by the wind.

Baekhyun is stunned by the action and cowers a little behind his knees, “Uh well, you know I think that the only reason it hurts this much and the reason I really have this disease is that I love him and he doesn’t anymore. And when I think about it more, especially when I’m alone, I wonder how easy it was for him to let us go. How easy it was for him to lie to me whenever I asked him why he was arriving home so late. I always think about when the ‘I love yous’ stopped meaning anything to him and how he stopped giving me kisses before going to work.” Baekhyun breathes in slowly trying to keep his tears at bay. 

“Sorry,” Baekhyun apologizes.

“It’s okay, don’t say sorry it’s okay to cry.” Chanyeol rubs his hands back and forth on Baekhyun’s back.

“No, I just don’t want to cry.” Baekhyun breathes in through his nose.

Baekhyun coughs lightly, thankfully keeping the flowers in. “I just always wonder where it all went wrong. Even after I left without a word, feeling incredibly angry and betrayed. In the back of my mind, I know I still love him, even with this much pain I still can’t stop, I gave up my family for him for fucks sake. I was ready to give him the world and I guess he just didn’t want it from me.” 

Baekhyun’s tears start to flow and he quickly bows down, hiding his face from Chanyeol while the taller immediately scoots closer to Baekhyun to give him a tight hug. 

It was silent for most of their time there after Baekhyun’s breakdown and despite the silence both of them seemed comfortable in that little moment, together, safe within each other’s arms.

\--

It's been a few weeks since Jongin and Kyungsoo have been waiting for Baekhyun to pile up his points for a going out ticket. They've been planning to hang out outside for quite some time now and they were getting a little too excited for their trip.

“Come on Baekhyun! How many points do you have now?” Jongin impatiently complains.

“Just about enough I think, I'm pretty sure I have enough!” the boy exclaims with certainty.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen Chanyeol runs into one of the part-time nurses also working in the rehab center. “Good afternoon Chanyeol,” the dark teal haired boy greets his coworker, “I checked all our patients' token points and I'd overheard Baekhyun was saving points for a going out ticket, and it looks like he has enough,” Jaehyun eagerly informs the taller boy, “Why don't you go ahead and deliver the good news to patient Baekhyun? After all, he is most comfortable with you,” the boy with almond-shaped eyes urges.

Chanyeol stops to think if he'd take up the offer. “I'd love to, but I'd have to pass. You can go ahead and do that, I have to finish up here in the kitchen,” the boy in black sighs, wishing he could deliver the news to Baekhyun instead.

“Alright, I'll go ahead and tell him now.” He smiles warmly at Chanyeol as the shorter boy heads out of the kitchen, up the stairs to inform Baekhyun about the good news.

Jaehyun stands at the door of the boys' room. Although open he still knocked on the door to alert everyone of his presence. "Patient Baekhyun?" he calls out. “Yes?” The boy with disheveled hair replies eagerly. “I'm here to congratulate you for accumulating a certain amount of points to be eligible to claim your going out ticket for a day,” Jaehyun says joyfully almost as if he was happy for him. The sunset-haired boy almost looked like his eyes were glistening. “See Jongin? I told you! Now we can go to the arcade today!” Baekhyun chirps full of excitement.

While getting ready to head outside, Baekhyun decides on bringing Chanyeol along since it was a part of his initial plan. So he sends the nurse a text.

_ “Hey, wanna come with?” _

_ “where?” _

_ “An arcade with me, jongin and kyungsoo  _ _ •×• _ _ ” _

_ “Would they mind if i tagged along?” _

_ “I’m sure they wouldn't” _

_ “Sure, I'll come with you hyunnie” _

\--

The squad heads to the train station getting on the green line as they take the train to the arcade.

Getting out, they proceed to the arcade Jongin and Kyungsoo recommended. As usual, Baekhyun and Chanyeol are at it again. The round-eyed boy eager to tease them, but Kyungsoo decided to pull him away. “Let them be this time Jongin,” the quiet boy spouts.

Generally speaking, Baekhyun thought that all four of them were pretty good at gaming. But sometime into competitive games in the arcade, he notices that Jongin had been constantly losing against Kyungsoo. Considering the fact that Kyungsoo wasn't as good as Chanyeol at arcade games. He found it quite odd.

The wide-eyed boy tugs on Jongin's plaid sweater. “Look! Look! It's air hockey the game we used to play as kids,” Kyungsoo chirps in an upbeat voice, almost nostalgic of the days they were kids. “Let's go play then, I'll let you be player one,” Jongin chuckles at their little inside joke. Baekhyun notices their interest in the air hockey game. “Oh, can Yeollie and I join too?” the droopy-eyed boy ecstatically asks. Jongin smiles, “It's 2v2 then, us against you guys,” the brown haired boy smirks, “We won't go down without a fight though.”

“Then it's on,” Chanyeol says almost as if his competitiveness peaked.

They've competed like they were on a seesaw. It's been up and down for both teams, and the tension only got worse between them when they were tied. Without missing a beat, Chanyeol hits the hockey puck a little too hard and blasts off like it was on steroids. Kyungsoo and Jongin try to keep track of the puck, attempting to hit it back at them. Just as the hockey puck blasts back to Chanyeol, Baekhyun sees an opening and hits it at a timely pace. Shocked, Kyungsoo tried to block the shot but it was too late. Baekhyun and Chanyeol won the game not by a long shot, but they fairly won the game.

Chanyeol stares at Baekhyun in shock that he pulled off something out of the blue like that. Shock turns in to celebration; they jump in blissful happiness, absent-mindedly hugging each other in the process.

“We did it Baekhyun! I'm so proud of you!”

They pull away from the hug as they quiet down from their victory.

“That was a nice game.” Kyungsoo exhales from stress.

“Competitive too, I'm exhausted,” Jongin chimes in.

Baekhyun sighs in relief, “Well we do only have 10 more tokens left, let’s go do something else with it.” He grabs Chanyeol by the hand and walks off looking for other games they can play. The losing party was left behind only for the hazel skin-toned boy to look at the other and leave Kyungsoo just sighing heavily. “Let’s go Nini, we gotta tag along,” he shrugs.

The tokens ran out, and as soon as they knew it, they were already headed back to the train station.

While they were walking back, Kyungsoo pulls on Baekhyun's pink sleeve. “Hey uh, Jongin just saw a bunch of taiyaki and he's been whining to me to buy him one. Do you mind going ahead with Chanyeol?” the boy with heart-shaped lips asks.

The boy in a pink knitted sweater lets out a muted chuckle, typical Jongin he isn't even surprised. “It's alright, Chanyeollie and I can go ahead,” he gives Kyungsoo a reassuring smile as the whining boy proceeds to drag him to the taiyaki stand.

The pair arrives in the subway, near the gate that separates the train stations from the general public without paying for a ride. The taller boy offers the other to go first. Baekhyun grabs the identification card holder around his neck as he taps it in. The doors slide open for him as he walks through, and Chanyeol follows after him, only for the machine to stop and alert him that his transportation card has run out of load.

“Ah, I ran out of load, I'm sorry Baekhyun but I have to reload this. Wait for me by the benches downstairs alright?” the boy stuck on the other side says.

Baekhyun's heart clenches a little bit at the thought of being away from Chanyeol in public. “Oh, it's alright Channie I can wait,” the pouty boy says reluctantly as he heads down the stairs to sit on a bench.

He finds himself a little dazed staring off at the glass doors that without a train look so hollow and lifeless, but someone or something beside him didn't seem as dull as those doors.

“Baekhyun! I didn't expect to see you here,” the man tries his best to keep a lively tone despite his lethargic appearance.

What the peach-haired boy hears, stuns him frozen. Wishing this wasn't real, wishing he, of all people, wasn't here.

The man laughs, almost sounding cynical to him. “Hello? Byun Baekhyun? Are you alright?” the man says worriedly.

_ Byun _ , the word echoes in his mind, and causes him to snap out of his trance. Back into reality, his body feverishly shook from nervousness, but he managed to get a sentence out. "What the fuck are you doing here Taewoo" Baekhyun says in the most exasperated voice, and glares at the man.

“Why, I'm waiting for a train, Byun Baekhyun, and honestly I didn't wanna tell you this here 'cause the subway isn't a nice setting for this kind of conversation,” Taewoo says nonchalantly.

“Jesus christ, Taewoo I don't have time for this right now, I don't need this.” Baekhyun tries to push the taller man away but the sly man only sees this as an opportunity as he grabs the boy's soft palms. “I wanna make up for what happened Baekhyun, please believe me. This time, I promise I'll treat you better, like the treatment you deserve,” Taewoo says in the most apologetic and sincere manner.

“I promise Byun Baekhyun, this time I won't let you down.” The grip on the small boy’s hands tightens.

“Can you not right now, Taewoo? I don't need distractions like this in my life. I need to get better, and you're just making me stunt it.” The droopy-eyed boy tried pulling away from the man's tight grip.

“I'll help you get better, I'm sure this time Baekhyun,” Taewoo tries his best to assure the boy he's changed for the better.

“I know you blocked my number, and I'm pretty sure you still don't believe me.” He pulls out a pen from his pocket and softly grabs Baekhyun's wrist and starts writing. “Here's my new number, and text me to see for yourself. I really hope you reach out Baekhyun, I'm sooo worried for you,” he frowns at the innocent boy.

Baekhyun lets out an exhausted sigh. “God, can't you just leave me alone for now, Taewoo?!” he yells at the man seemingly annoyed at the fact this is happening.

“Fine, I'll get going. My train is here, but please reconsider Byun Baekhyun.” He sadly moves away from the boy in the pink knitted sweater into his train.

It wasn't even a minute later; he could hear the voices of Chanyeol chatting with Kyungsoo. While Jongin munched happily and absentmindedly kept talking about how delicious his taiyaki is.

Just then, Chanyeol sees Baekhyun looking a little disoriented and disheveled. He approaches the small boy and lays a hand on his shoulder, “Are you okay?” Chanyeol asks softly.

Baekhyun aggressively hits the hand on his shoulder, “I said just leave me alone already! I don't need this right now!” the boy adrift screams.

“B-baekhyun? That was Chanyeol, are you okay?” the boy holding his hot taiyaki in hand calls out, looking worried.

_ Holy shit they’re back.  _ Baekhyun freezes and tries to compose himself. “Hey, oh you’re back.” He smiles at the lot. 

“Are you okay?” Chanyeol asks this time, putting his arm around the boy.

“Yeah, I’m good,” Baekhyun answers way too lively. He then turns his head to Jongin’s direction, “Is it good?” he asks the boy who's enjoying his taiyaki, obviously trying to change the subject. 

Chanyeol quickly brushes off the weird feeling as soon Baekhyun changes the subject. Saving his questions for another time.

They get on the train just in time and Baekhyun spends the whole ride home leaning his head on the giant’s shoulder, comfortable and warm. 

\---

After the group’s little trip to the arcade, the days that passed continued on like it always should. Well at least in Baekhyun’s mind it did but to those who were with him, they noticed something odd going on with Baekhyun, he looked brighter but also a little glum since the trip and they couldn’t point out what the reason could be.

It was another Monday morning and a lot was in store for the patients that day. Starting the Monday routine, Chanyeol excitedly brings his things up to the rooms to start taking vital signs. 

As he enters the room, he immediately walks towards Baekhyun’s side of the room; the boy still sleeping solemnly engulfed in his sheets. 

“Good morning, sunshine.” Chanyeol gently brushes away Baekhyun’s sleep-ruffled hair from his face revealing his forehead. 

The sun shined on Baekhyun’s cheeks; little rays of sunlight caressed his skin making it irresistible for Chanyeol not to poke one of the dainty little moles on his face.

“Sunshine, it’s time for vital signs,” Chanyeol sings while gently booping the constellation of moles on his face. 

Baekhyun’s face scrunched up from the brightness and swatted at Chanyeol’s hand lazily; taking his comforter and pulling it over his head. “Five more minutes.”

Chanyeol chuckles at the smaller’s response, “It’s almost time for breakfast Hyunnie, plus we’re having a checkup with Dr. Junmyeon today.”

Baekhyun sits up abruptly, “It’s already Monday?” rubbing his eyes before looking up at the giant.

“Yes, now hold still,” Chanyeol says while pressing a thermometer into Baekhyun’s ear. “Your temperature is 36.7, Mr. Baekhyun sir.”

Baekhyun giggles, “Sounds normal to me nurse Chanyeol sir, now take my blood pressure.” He hands his arm out to Chanyeol and the taller curtseys before securing the cuff around Baekhyun’s arm.

They both guffaw at each other's ridiculous antics, Chanyeol smacking his hand against anything he could reach. 

Everyone else in the room with them couldn’t help but shake their heads at what they’d just seen, each person either sporting a knowing smile or a confused look. It really was great seeing the two together having so much fun, but they really need to get a room.

Breakfast and lunch came and passed, it was finally time for their weekly check-up. This time, Dr. Kim Junmyeon was in charge since Dr. Minseok was out of town that day. 

When Baekhyun’s name was called into the exam room, his heart wouldn't stop beating hard as if it was his first time getting the assessment.

He was hoping to see Chanyeol inside but instead nurse Yixing was there. It’s not that he didn’t like the part-time nurse, in fact he was quite close to him despite his working arrangements but he was just expecting Chanyeol to be there for him during a nerve-wracking time. 

Dr. Junmyeon greets him and explains the procedure to him like always, Baekhyun was almost moving mechanically to the doctor’s instructions from all the nerves, Nurse Yixing guides him through all the steps and without noticing; and after a few inhales and exhales, Dr. Junmyeon announces that he was done. 

“Huh?” Baekhyun says still a little out of it.

The doctor chuckles at Baekhyun’s response, “As I was saying, your lungs sound better than usual, it sounds like it’s cleared up a little bit.”

“What?” Baekhyun says a little breathless, he still couldn’t believe what he heard. 

“Now, I don’t want to give you false hope, but it looks like the medication is working. I’ll ask the nurses to take note of that and continue administering what we’ve already been giving.” Dr. Junmyeon writes on his little pad. “Here you go Yixing, bring it out to Joy.” 

With the nurse out the door, Baekhyun sits on the chair still in disbelief. “Is it possible that I’m getting better because of something else other than the medicine?” Baekhyun looks up from his daze with little hopeful eyes; he hates how he could still be so hopeful about it but he couldn’t help but think of the possibility that Taewoo—

Baekhyun’s thoughts were interrupted by the hanahaki specialist clearing his throat and pushing his glasses closer to his eyes, “It’s a really rare occasion for things like that to happen, but I’m guessing you’re thinking of someone. And I really don’t want to give you false hope Baekhyun so I suggest not to engage yourself with these thoughts.” Dr. Junmyeon frowns at him sympathetically.

“But it’s possible right?” Baekhyun presses, at the back of his mind, he’s thinking maybe just maybe Taewoo was telling him the truth this time and maybe everything would work out after all.

Dr. Junmyeon pleads, “Yes it is, but please Baekhyun—” but Baekhyun was blinded, he immediately stood up and bowed. 

“Thanks Doc! See you next week!” 

As Baekhyun shut the door to the exam room, Junmyeon couldn’t help but release a worried sigh. “This isn’t gonna be good,” he says in a defeated tone.

Baekhyun skips out of the room with a noticeable spring in his step. He searches for Chanyeol around the house, excited to share the news with him but instead, he finds Jongin and Kyungsoo.

He wasn't complaining though, after all he needed someone to share the news with, so why not Kyungsoo and Jongin?

Baekhyun, still elated, walks up to the pair. Always the usual Jongin entertaining nonsensical questions and talks about things that almost seem unending. 

“You guyssssss, I have something to say!” Baekhyun says so animatedly as if he couldn't hold back the news.

The talkative boy swiftly gets his attention grabbed. “Aaah, what is it??” Jongin excitedly waits for the strawberry looking boy to deliver the news.

“Dr. Junmyeon told me I was getting better, and he says there's a possibility that it could be because of someone,” he squeals in excitement.

“Oooooooo, so you're actually suggesting nurse Chanyeol could be—” without being able to finish his sentence Baekhyun cuts the teasy boy off.

“N-no! I don't think it's him, it couldn't be him,” he stutters, thinking he knew pretty well who it was.

The tan-skinned boy frowns knowing that this couldn't be good. “So, who are you suggesting?” He plays along and plasters on a fake smile.

Baekhyun recognizes Jongin lost a little bit of enthusiasm in his voice. “Well, I think— I-I'm thinking it's my ex.” He shrugs;  _ of course it was him right? _ There was no doubt in his head that it was Taewoo.

Kyungsoo looks back at them — and not out of the window for once — looking a little concerned. “Don't you think that's a little bit self-destructive?” the wide eyed boy prods.

The droopy-eyed boy was surprised they reacted that way. “Really? I'm getting better and I thought you guys would be happy for me,” he says in a snarky remark.

The brown haired boy sadly lays a hand on his friend by the window and speaks up, “We  _ are _ happy for you, we're just worried about you,” the round-eyed Jongin pipes up, genuinely concerned.

“Jongin is right; we're just looking out for you. I hope you know that,” the boy by the window adds to the statement.

Baekhyun sighs, “I understand, I'm sorry for snapping earlier. I guess I just really want this to happen. I'm gonna go ahead and look for Chanyeol now.” He waves at the two boys always located near the windowsill, always near each other.

After his little disagreement with the two friends, he walks a little more discouraged towards the backyard in hopes of finding Chanyeol. Maybe he could give him the little support that he needed. 

And there he found him on the old swing set. Baekhyun smiled at the giant’s figure, sneaking up behind him. 

“Boo,” Baekhyun says which makes Chanyeol jump from his seat. 

“Shit, Baekhyun!” Chanyeol yells holding his chest in panic. “Fuuuck,” he groans, kneeling on the grass.

Baekhyun cackles and hugs the nurse. “I’m sorry!” still laughing, patting Chanyeol’s back trying to console him. 

“Please never do that again,” Chanyeol pouts at the smaller.

Baekhyun cups his hands on Chanyeol’s cheeks, “Yes, I won’t. I’m sorry.” 

“I was looking for you everywhere,” Baekhyun says exasperatedly, releasing his hold on the nurse’s cheeks and lies on the grass looking at the sky, “Now it’s almost dark.”

“Sorry I just had to think.” Chanyeol says joining Baekhyun on the grass.

“About what?”

“Just stuff. So what were you so excited to tell me?” Chanyeol changes the subject.

“Oh, well Dr. Myeon said I was getting better.” He faces the taller. 

“Really?! That’s great Baekhyun!” Chanyeol stands up and pulls Baekhyun up with him, hugging the pink haired boy spinning him around in excitement while Baekhyun laughs along with the taller boy’s emotions. 

He lets go of the boy in his arms and jumps up and down, making Baekhyun follow along with him. 

“Wait, stop.” Baekhyun pants, he lies back down onto the grass pulling Chanyeol down with him.

“Are you okay?” They both got a little quiet now; only the sound of Baekhyun’s unsteady breaths were heard.

“Yeol, I’m out of breath.” Baekhyun faces Chanyeol, grabbing for his hand. He grips tightly feeling himself getting back the slightest control of his breathing. 

Chanyeol couldn't think, his hands were in between Baekhyun and their faces were so close to each other and all he could think of was, “I’ll let you borrow my air.”

Chanyeol looked for assurance in Baekhyun's eyes before leaning in for a kiss. 

It was soft and delicate, so unsure and foreign and ironically, it made Baekhyun feel so breathless. The taste of Chanyeol playing against his tongue gave him a rush of adrenaline all over his body, making him arch his back and deepen the kiss with the newly discovered sensation. 

The smaller runs a hand through Chanyeol's dark hair, relishing the feeling of their skin pressed up against each other. The kiss was slow, intimate, and beyond dizzying as they kept inhaling each other's scents through flared nostrils and parted mouths. 

Baekhyun parts from the kiss; still dizzy and dazed, he quickly stands up and moves away. “No,” he says softly, covering his face from Chanyeol’s view. 

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Chanyeol approaches Baekhyun, reaching a hand out but never really letting his hands touch the pink-haired boy.

Chanyeol knows he shouldn’t have gone for the kiss, he knows that he just ruined something that could have been good, he knows it was unprofessional and he knows as a nurse he shouldn't be doing something like that to a patient. 

Maybe in a different time, maybe on a better day it would have been okay.

“I’m so sorry; I really can’t deal with this right now.” Baekhyun says leaving Chanyeol alone, in the backyard only with his thoughts and a handful of regrets.

\--

The next day comes quicker than Baekhyun wants it to. He hasn't slept a wink, he’s been thinking about the kiss all night. He shouldn’t have walked out on Chanyeol, he should’ve stayed and tried to fix the problem and now he doesn't know what will happen. Daily vital signs were about to start, and he was so scared for how Chanyeol would react. 

He was still tossing and turning on his bed when Chanyeol entered the room. Baekhyun immediately sat up to acknowledge his arrival.

“Morning,” Chanyeol greets curtly. 

Baekhyun’s chest clenches from the lifeless greeting but nonetheless nods at the nurse, something clearly was different. Jongin from the other side of the room definitely noticed the tension between the two and kicked at Kyungsoo’s bed trying to point at the gloomy looking pair near the window. 

The pink-haired boy kept on looking up at the nurse with puppy eyes, somewhat pleading for the same kind of interaction he used to have with Chanyeol. 

After their vital signs exchange. The day went on as Baekhyun expected. Chanyeol was avoiding him and all he could do was sulk sleepily the whole day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner passed and Chanyeol did not bat a single eyelash his way. 

After dinner, Kyungsoo and Jongin are out on the porch talking. “What’s really going on with you Jongin? And how are you still getting worse?” Kyungsoo asks exasperatedly. 

Jongin just stays quiet for a moment looking out into the darkness trying to avoid answering the question. 

“You never tell me anything anymore Jongin. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore,” Kyungsoo says quietly 

Trying to keep himself calm after hearing Kyungsoo’s remark, he exhales a deep sigh, “How could you say that Kyungsoo?” closing his eyes before any tears escape.

“Just tell me the truth Nini, please, who did this to you? You’re worrying me.” Kyungsoo frowns. 

The olive-skinned boy releases a defeated laugh, “I don’t think you’d want to know.”

“Please,” Kyungsoo says almost in tears.

Jongin inhales deeply feeling his tears slipping from his eyes. “It’s you Kyungsoo. I’m in love with you.”

And Kyungsoo was left speechless, until he burst into tears, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry Nini—” 

“It’s okay Soo; it’s not your fault.” Jongin pulls the smaller boy into a hug. “It’s okay.”

“We’ll get through this.” 

\--

On the other side of the house, Baekhyun wanted to at least try and interact with Chanyeol so when they ran into each other in the hallway, Baekhyun called for the nurse’s attention.

“H-Hey Chanyeol.” 

Chanyeol stops and smiles a detached smile, “Do you need anything?”

Baekhyun’s shoulders visibly sag, disappointed at the taller’s response. “Never mind,” he answers tight-lipped walking past the nurse’s shoulders rushing to get out and get some fresh air.

When Baekhyun walked past Chanyeol, all he could do was breathe in. It's been so hard seeing how tired and sad Baekhyun looked all day but Chanyeol just couldn't risk making another mistake again. He was scared he'd just make things worse. For Baekhyun and for his career. He leaned his hand against the wall trying to steady himself.

“Fuck.” He punches the wall lightly in defeated anger.

Meanwhile, Baekhyun steps out onto the backyard, thankfully no one else was there, Baekhyun sits down on one of the swings and stares at the one next to it. Tears started to well up in his eyes and before he knew it, he was sobbing quietly. He looks up at the sky looking for answers, asking himself why all this needed to happen. 

\--

It’s been five days since Chanyeol started to act ‘professional’ around Baekhyun and everyone in the house had already figured out that there was definitely something wrong between the two. The house would always be unusually quiet after the incident as most of the noise would always come from Baekhyun and Chanyeol and now that Baekhyun knew what Chanyeol really wanted.  _ Or at least he assumed he knew after the hallway mishap.  _ Baekhyun tried his best to be civil with the nurse. Everyday would be the same, he would wake up and at times Jaehyun would take his vitals or even Joy on the odd days that Jaehyun was out, but it all just really meant that Chanyeol started to get Baekhyun’s vitals less and less. All of their meals would be quiet, with the occasional anecdotes that Jongin would share with the group, and Baekhyun finished his meals way faster than he should. 

His smile grew dim as the days passed, and it was like he was starting his stay all over again. The sun seemed to shine less, and maybe because it was approaching autumn, but nonetheless Baekhyun’s demeanor changed drastically and all he did was stare out the window or sit on the swing alone watching the leaves begin to turn into various shades of umber. 

The weekly checkup was about to take place that day and Baekhyun felt like his chest was getting tighter with every breath. He can’t quite point out if it’s just the nerves or if he’s actually gotten worse and his ex was just giving him open promises the day they met.

He’s also stopped sending texts after a few days of Baekhyun just leaving the messages unread so he guesses that his anxieties were all true. Taewoo just doesn’t love him anymore. 

“Patient Baekhyun?” 

His thoughts are interrupted once again by his name being called into the exam room. He drags his feet towards the office, breathing quite heavily.

“Hi Baekhyun, how are you doing?” This time it was Dr. Minseok behind the door 

“Just fine,” he answers, voice a little hoarse. With sluggish movements he sits on the exam table getting ready for the assessment.

The check-up went on as usual but every time Baekhyun would inhale, he almost couldn't get air into his lungs, and every deep breath would just cause him to cough uninvitedly. Thankfully Yixing was there to assist him and give him his inhaler. “It hurts,” Baekhyun whines, hitting his chest with clenched fists releasing another cough accompanied by a cluster of yellow petals. “I’m sorry,” he wheezes. 

Minseok frowns at Baekhyun’s hunched figure. “Last time I heard, from Myeon you were actually getting better. What happened?”

Baekhyun shakes his head to answer the doctor “I don’t know.” 

“Has he been taking the same dose since the last check-up?” the doctor asks Yixing.

“Yes doc,” Yixing answers. 

“I’ll be fine; it’s probably just because of the ice cream I ate earlier.” He was lying but he just needed to get out of there. 

He needed to get out. 

“Alright, well tomorrow we need to get an x-ray of those lungs of yours just to be sure so don’t do anything too exhausting for the rest of the day okay?” Dr. Minseok advises.

And with that, Baekhyun nods quickly despite making him a little light-headed, he stands up and bows at the two who were in the room thanking them for their time and informing them that he would be resting a little earlier than usual. 

Once he steps out of the office he rushes to the bedroom as much as his body would allow, he piles up his pillows under the blanket to create an illusion of a human figure and grabs his phone from the bedside drawer dialing Taewoo’s number.

“Meet me at the restaurant near the rehab. I’ll send you the address,” Baekhyun informs him curtly and immediately hangs up. He closes the lights to the room, still feeling a little unsteady on his feet.

He sneaks his way out of the rehab to get to the restaurant as fast as he could without passing out. 

Baekhyun arrives, panting; he spots Taewoo at the entrance of the restaurant. With hurried steps he approaches the man and drags him to the parking lot. 

“Taewoo, I want to know. Please tell me the truth.” Baekhyun wipes his forehead.

“What truth Baekhyun? I’ve already told you everything,” Taewoo answers in disbelief.

“I know you’re hiding something Taewoo, can’t you fucking see? I’m getting worse.” He wheezes feeling another chunk of flowers itching to get out. 

“You can’t fucking lie to me anymore!” Baekhyun screamed and with that came the flowers, there was so much blood and he suddenly couldn’t breathe. 

Before Baekhyun even got his answer, his back hits the cold pavement and he’s met with Taewoo’s worried face and then it’s all black.

\--

“Baekhyun-hyung?” Sehun calls for the boy across the room, the older boy has been way too still for a sleeping Baekhyun as he would have been creating a mess by now. 

“Hyung are you okay?” He finally stood up to approach Baekhyun’s bed to check if he was still breathing.

He slowly pulls the covers away from the sleeping figure and gets taken aback by what he saw. 

“Shit, hyung where are you?” Sehun says in panic running out of the room to call the attention of those in the household.

“BAEKHYUN HYUNG IS MISSING.” He shouts, teary eyed making everyone stop everything they were doing. 

Joy promptly steps up to calm everyone down, she gathers them all to the living room to sit and think of a way to find their missing house mate. 

Chanyeol’s heart wouldn’t stop beating against his chest, he was on the verge of tears but he remained firmly stood by the entrance of the room. He couldn't just sit and wait for something to happen and they were still planning a course of action. 

Being one of the closest to the home phone, once the phone rings, Chanyeol immediately grabs the handle to answer the call, “Hello?” 

“Hi, good evening, is this New Hope Rehab center for hanahaki disease patients?” 

“Yes,” Chanyeol answers, holding his breath.

“We would like to inform you that patient Byun Baekhyun was found unconscious by a bystander and was brought to Wyatt Blue Hospital. He is currently in critical condition. Is there perhaps a family member we can contact to take care of the paperwork?”

Chanyeol’s stomach drops at the news but he urges himself to keep calm. “His family is away but I can represent them. I’ll be there right away,” he answers in a shaky voice.

The phone call ends and he turns to face the people, restless for any sort of update about Baekhyun, Chanyeol breathes in trying to keep his tears at bay as he explains to the lot about what happened. 

He looks at Joy and asks for permission to go to the hospital to take care of Baekhyun, she doesn't hesitate and gives a firm nod to Chanyeol, “Go ahead; I’ll take care of everything here. Please stay safe Chanyeol.”

And with that, he leaves the group of worried and teary-eyed people in the home. He hurriedly rides the car and before he could even put the keys in the ignition, he finally releases the tears he’s been holding in the whole time. 

“FUCK!” He screams in utter frustration hitting the steering wheel in anger. 

_ This is all his fault, _ he thinks.  _ If only he was there for Baekhyun this wouldn’t even happen. If only he pushed his feelings away _ . “I’m so sorry Baekhyun,” he sobs under his breath and right then he realizes the urgency of the situation at hand which makes him snap out of his self-pity and put his feelings aside. 

He drives away and in no time he arrives at the hospital, frantically getting out of his car, he runs to the nurse’s station and quickly informs them that he was there for Byun Baekhyun, they tell him the room number and he rushes to find the room.

Before Chanyeol reaches his destination, he overhears a man taking on the phone, 

“Yeah the Byun’s son just literally passed out and now I’m here at the hospital with the little fucker.” He informs the person on the other side of the phone.

The guy scoffs, “As if I’d ever fall in love with the dude. You know I’m just in it for the money plus he’s oblivious. Byun Baekhyun’s one stupid little sh—”

Chanyeol didn’t let the man finish his sentence and angrily grabbed his shirt, “Leave before I make you regret ever breathing the same air.”

“Who the fuck are you? I’m his boyfriend,” the guy sneers which makes Chanyeol angrier, pressing him further against the wall. “You’re the fucking asshole who made him like this then.” 

Gritting his teeth, he tries his best to keep his composure, “You’re fucking garbage, get out my sight.” He releases the guy from his grip, making Taewoo hit his head on the wall.

“Fuck,” Taewoo mutters under his breath.

Chanyeol, still fuming, looks at the figure walking away, “I swear to god if I see you meddling with his life again. You’re dead.”

“Okay man, lay the fuck off,” Taewoo says with finality disappearing from Chanyeol’s sight. 

After what happened, Chanyeol went into Baekhyun's room; which felt so quiet, with him unconscious. He missed that bright bubbly aura he always emitted. He grabs a chair and places it next to Baekhyun's bed. He holds the pink-haired boy's hand so small, compared to his. Looking at all of its imperfections, yet he still finds it so perfect. He looks at the boy and his tears start streaming down his face.

"I'm so sorry Baekhyun," he apologizes to the unconscious boy as he cries on his bedside.

Chanyeol wakes up the next day to a sleeping Baekhyun with ruffled pink hair; suddenly the boy sitting near the bedside hears a knock on the door.

“Hyung?” Sehun’s voice breaks the silence of the room.

“Hey,” Chanyeol greets them.

“How are you? How is Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo walks to the unconscious boy to gently sweep away the bangs on his forehead. 

Chanyeol puts his chin back down on the bed to get closer to Baekhyun’s hand. “The doctor says it might take some time for him to wake up, especially because of his meds.” 

“Oh then, why don’t we get some food first, hm?” Kyungsoo suggests looking at the disheveled looking nurse.

Chanyeol shakes his head, “It’s okay, I’ll stay here, you guys go.”

“I’ll stay with him!” Sehun chirps

“Alright then,” Kyungsoo nods and signals at Jongin to go ahead, “we’ll be back.”

\--

Baekhyun finally wakes up the next day and Chanyeol springs up in excitement, “Oh my god Baekhyun, you’re awake.” He presses the call button.

“Do you need water?” Chanyeol asks but Baekhyun doesn’t give an answer, he just stares at the ceiling blankly.

“Do you want to eat? Are you hungry?” Chanyeol tries again but Baekhyun still acts like he didn’t hear anything.

The taller frowns and approaches the boy, in order to hold his hand but Baekhyun moves away, slowly and painfully turning away from Chanyeol.

With an even deeper frown he was about to stomp his way to the other side and try to get his attention, but before he could even do that, the nurses suddenly rush in through the door checking for Baekhyun’s vital signs, offering him water and asking him if he felt like there was anything wrong.

To Chanyeol’s surprise, Baekhyun answers them all, even taking the water offered to him. Chanyeol’s stomach drops.  _ Baekhyun really is ignoring him. _

\--

It’s been five days and all of Chanyeol’s attempts at making amends with the pink-haired boy has failed to the farthest extent. Every time he would try to start a conversation, every time he would offer his tray of food, every time he tried to just touch him even; he was flat out ignored and pushed away. 

He was on the verge of giving up every single day, moping and pouting even almost crying at times but he didn’t want to give up that easily. Not after all that happened. He just couldn't let Baekhyun go again.

So he kept trying even if it hurt getting rejected again and again. 

Baekhyun's been expecting a visit from Kyungsoo and Jongin since he's been conscious. They did arrive later that day to visit the sickly boy.

Chanyeol saw how cheerful and bright Baekhyun was with them, yet without them it would be as if the room would be lifeless.

They were currently talking about a movie that recently watched during the last movie night, the three were throwing their opinions about the movie back and forth when Chanyeol speaks, 

“The cinematography was a little lackluster” Jongin says while in thought.

Kyungsoo interjects, “No! It was perfectly fine!”

“Kyungsoo’s right, don’t you think so Baekhyun?” he says, a little hopeful for a reply.

Baekhyun just turns to look at Jongin instead. “Remember when Anne Hathaway literally was just begging for his husband to die? Oh god,” he laughs.

Kyungsoo sends Chanyeol a sympathetic look before going back to the subject at hand.

Chanyeol tried involving himself into the conversation, multiple times after that which failed completely, only Jongin and Kyungsoo would reply willingly to him. And he couldn't help but feel a little defeated and embarrassed.

\--

It’s been a few minutes since Kyungsoo and Jongin have left the two troubled friends together in the hospital room, and it was awfully quiet. Chanyeol was looking down trying not to burst into tears.

“Why are you doing this?” Chanyeol asks quietly.

“Doing what,” Baekhyun answers lifelessly.

Chanyeol frowns, “You keep ignoring me Baek, don’t you appreciate me being here for you?” 

Baekhyun looks away scoffing, “I didn’t even ask you to be here nor did I want you here anyway.”

Chanyeol feels his heart drop down to his stomach, tears welling back up. He carefully breathes in, “Okay, I get it.” 

He stands up and collects his things, “I’ll tell Joy to come here instead.”

Chanyeol slams the door behind him, storming out of the hospital, angry and in pain. He didn’t notice that he was crying until the cold air hit him, he crouches on the pavement, inhales deeply and releases a sob, making his lungs clench in pain. “Fuck,” he cries, not even knowing that Kyungsoo and Jongin were watching him from afar confused and intrigued about what really was going on.

\--

After one week of being treated at Wyatt Blue Hospital, Baekhyun was declared eligible to be discharged. He honestly thought Chanyeol wasn't serious when he said Joy would pick him up instead. A resilient person like him wouldn't stop at just that. But to his surprise, Joy actually came and picked him up.

Joy comes inside Baekhyun's room. “Ready to head out sweetie? I'm glad you're okay.” She gently trails her hand on the droopy-eyed boy's face and smiles.

“Yeah I'm ready to go.” The once lively boy looks at Joy and gives a dainty smile.

The pair heads out into the same van that Chanyeol drove the night Baekhyun had passed out. Nurse Joy tries her best to comfort the newly discharged boy after hearing what had happened with Chanyeol. She keenly opens the door for Baekhyun and he hops inside. No more than thirty minutes, they arrived at the rehab center.

He expects that Chanyeol would be ignoring him right now, since he actually sent Joy. To his surprise — upon entering the door — he was met by the same tall figure wearing black. Like it was his first day all over again, the taller boy smiles at him. “Need help with any of that?” the bubbly boy softly chuckles as he recalls the first words they had exchanged with each other.

The pink-haired boy just rolls his eyes and storms upstairs.

He plops himself on his well missed bed. “Welcome back!” Jongin greets Baekhyun but the boy seems quite out of it.

“Oh, it seems like your snack is here.” Jongin says slyly.

“What snack?” the boy groans.

“That of course.” He points to the door where Chanyeol is standing. Holding the same wooden tray with two slices of pizza. Everything was the same apart from how the once bright boy felt about it.

“Stop doing this Chanyeol. You’re making it harder for the both of us,” Baekhyun says once he drags Chanyeol out to the backyard. 

“Doing what?” Chanyeol asks seriously.

“All this, whatever the fuck you’re doing right now.” Baekhyun flails his arms in anger.

“How am I gonna stop, if I already like you too much to lose you?” Chanyeol pleads.

Baekhyun runs his hands through his hair and pulls at it. “Aren’t you scared?”

Chanyeol’s face scrunches, “Of what?”

“Of me not falling in love with you!” Baekhyun yells at the taller nurse, tears of frustration falling from his face.

Chanyeol is quiet for a few beats, he looks up at the sky and when he faces Baekhyun, he too has tears in his eyes. “What if I say no?”

Baekhyun groans in annoyance. “Then you’re being fucking stupid,” he cries.

“You’re making this so hard for the both of us Yeol. I really want to get better and you’re not helping at all.” Baekhyun heavily sobs dropping down to his knees, “Please Chanyeol just stay away from me.” 

Chanyeol holds on to his chest breathing heavily, holding back his cries, it really fucking hurt coming from Baekhyun and he didn’t know what else to do so he struggles to mutter under his breath whilst hyperventilating, “I-I’m sorry.” It took so much strength in his body to get those words out without fully breaking down in front of Baekhyun and after doing so he weakly walked to the house leaving Baekhyun to pick himself up.

Seeing the whole event take place, Sehun rushes to the backyard to help Baekhyun before the older starts to have a coughing fit again. “Let’s go, hyung. It’s okay.” 

\--

It was ignore-mageddon all over again and Jongin couldn’t take it anymore, he’s asked everyone around the house and it turns out they’re all tired of it too, so he came up with a plan to fix the shit that these two stupid people started. 

Jongin and Kyungsoo were sitting together on the couch trying to concoct a game plan whilst observing Baekhyun, “We can’t keep this from going like this 'cause he might just commit d word.” Jongin says and Kyungsoo hits his arm.

“Shh.” 

“Whaaat, I was quiet?” Jongin whines.

Baekhyun was clearly getting worse and he's still oblivious to the fact that this is all because of his well, cluelessness.

When time finally came to discuss the plan, Jongin initiated a secret meeting with the rest of the members of the house.

“So this is what I came up with while sneaking around with my stealth suit and observing the suspects,” Jongin says, putting his hands together with a sinister look.

Sehun raises an eyebrow judgingly, “Were you really sneaking around when you actually stuck out like a sore thumb wearing that weirdass fucken latex suit?” 

“That’s not nice, Sehun, he would have been naked without the suit y’know” Yixing pipes up.

Jongin grumbles, “What? Naked?” He shakes his head and turns to Sehun “Shut the fuck up Sehun, I was being an undercover spy, this is serious business, I don’t get paid enough to put up with this shit.” He glares at the younger boy.

Seulgi and Yeri giggles at the two, “We literally have video evidence of you acting like a discount spy.” 

“Heey it took time to get that suit and sneak it in okay.” Yixing whined and pouted at the girls still as affected as Jongin about the latex suit being dissed.

Jongin closes his eyes and puts his hands together, “Thank you Yixing; the only boy ever.” He points at the nurse sending him a hand heart.

“Okay, that’s enough let’s talk about the plan,” Kyungsoo announces, which settles down the giggles of everyone in the room.

\--

It was time to execute their plan and Jongin had been giddy the whole day.

They start Jongdae’s ‘birthday party’ like they should, with everyone gathered in the room to ‘surprise’ the medtech. 

When Jongdae walks in everyone immediately shouts a chorus of surprise. “Waah, Thank you!” he looks at everyone fondly; hugging and squeezing their cheeks one by one. 

They hand over the cake to Jongdae with  _ ‘Happy Birthday to our favorite and only med tech _ ’ written with icing.

Once the cake is given, the agenda starts: Joy whispers to Chanyeol to sneak his way up and find Jongdae’s gift hidden in the men’s bedroom.

“Alright, I’ll get it.” Chanyeol says before proceeding to take a step. Without missing a beat, Joy sends a signal towards Sehun’s direction; which then makes Jongin push Yixing to spill his juice on Sehun’s shirt, giving the maknae a chance to ask Baekhyun to get him his jacket upstairs.

“Hey, hyuung, could you please get me my jacket upstairs?” he pouts at the older. 

Baekhyun rolls his eyes, “Stop that, it’s not working.” He chuckles at the maknae’s attempt.

“Please please pleaaase,” he says almost with his puppy eyes. 

“Nope,” He denies the younger.

“Just this one timeee,” he whines.

Baekhyun sighs at the maknae, “Fine, but just this once okay?” 

Sehun nods eagerly. “Thank you hyuuung,” he smiles sweetly.

As Baekhyun walks farther away from the living room, heads turn towards his direction.  _ Finally,  _ they collectively thought.

Baekhyun gets up the stairs and notices that the lights are open, he steps in and sees the tall nurse wearing black crouched down by Jongin's bed. He immediately tries to divert the situation and run away from confrontation but as he turns around, he's met with Kyungsoo in front of him.

“Nope, you're talking or else.” He says with finality and pushes Baekhyun farther inside the room, closing the door and locking it from the outside. 

“Shit.” Baekhyun mutters under his breath.

Chanyeol stands up still not finding the gift, he decides to take a step back and look around the room. “Where the fuck did they pu—” 

He sees a figure in his peripheral vision and his head quickly snaps towards the direction of the figure and it turns out it was Baekhyun, still stunned, like a deer caught in headlights.

“Why are you here?” Chanyeol starts.

Baekhyun takes a huge gulp and points at the door, “It's locked.”

“What?” Chanyeol's eyes widen.

“Hey, let us out, this isn't middle school.” Chanyeol groans.

A smack on the door was heard from the other side. Then, a voice, “I didn't spend my precious time wearing that latex suit—thank you Yixing—just for me to let you out this easily. You. Will. Talk.” Jongin says seriously.

Baekhyun sighs, “So that's what it was for. I honestly thought it was some kind of kinky awakening.”

“Shut up Baekhyun, sit down and talk to yOur mANs,” he presses whilst banging on the door. 

It was silent after that and Baekhyun was starting to overthink, about how the room was slowly running out of oxygen as he was struggling to breathe, the walls felt like they were closing in and the last thing he would ever see in his life before he dies is that fucking giant's face. 

He kneels on the floor and starts to hyperventilate, his throat was dry and itchy, it's like another wave of flowers were about to come out of his mouth. His chest tightens as grips onto his shirt when he finally releases a rattling cough.

His throat hurt really bad and tears starting to well up around his eyes from the pain. Chanyeol gets worried and quickly approaches Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun turns away from Chanyeol, still coughing, then Chanyeol pulls Baek towards him and starts taking care of the boy. He hands him an inhaler that would stop the irritation of the branches momentarily and grabs tissues to wipe at Baekhyun’s mouth and hands, cleaning the blood and flowers. Baekhyun doesn’t notice at first but Chanyeol’s actually crying, 

“Why are you doing this?” Baekhyun sobs in pain.

Chanyeol's tears keep flowing, “Please take care of yourself, it’s like you’re just letting the disease take you so easily.”

“What's it to you?” Baekhyun glares, trying to pull away from the nurse's grasp.

Chanyeol holds onto the boy tighter, looking down for eye contact, “I watch you getting weaker and weaker everyday and it hurts.” Heavy teardrops roll off his cheeks and onto the wooden floors. 

Baekhyun stays silent.

“I don’t know what to do with you at this point.” he says, still grabbing tissues and trying to clean up all the blood.

“Why does it fucking matter to you?” Baekhyun, still hostile as ever. 

Chanyeol looks up teary eyed, “It just matters okay?”

“Why, I need to fucking know!” Baekhyun shouts in a hoarse voice, still coughing up more flowers.

This time Chanyeol is silent and he's scared of letting go of the words he's been holding onto for some time. 

“What? Answer me?” Baekhyun aggressively probes.

“Please stop yelling Baek, it's just gonna make it harder for you,” he softly cries out.

“Just tell me already I'm tired!” he screamed while sobbing uncontrollably.

Chanyeol sighs rubbing his hands over his face in frustration, "It’s because I fucking love you okay?!"

Baekhyun is dumbfounded. “What how, no.”

“I've fallen in love with you, how is that so hard to understand Baekhyun?” he asks softly. 

“I love you,” he says again. 

Baekhyun continues to be in denial trying to rationalize everything until Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun's face and kisses him deeply. 

They pulled apart after a few seconds trying to catch their breaths, cheeks flushed and warm, Baekhyun frozen after the lip lock. 

Chanyeol looks down in embarrassment, "I know that was unprofessional of me but, I'll wait for you to get better Baekhyun. I'll be here and when you're finally ready we'll work this out."

\--

Jongin laughs “Oh my god I think they kissed, do you think we should kiss too?” he looks at Kyungsoo teasingly.

Kyungsoo glares at the smiling boy and smacks his arms pushing him away from beside him “Jongin, stop” he says, blushing a little.

Sehun scoffs, “Can you two shut up? We're kind of in the middle of something.”

\--

“I don't think it will be that easy, Chanyeol. Are you sure you want this with me?” Baekhyun now asks calmly at the nurse who was now looking up at him with glistening eyes. 

Chanyeol nods, “Of course Baekhyun, didn't I just tell you I love you?”

\--

Meanwhile on the other side of the door, applause and cheers are heard.

“YES FINALLY” Jongin exclaims.

“Lo hicimos we did it!” Yixing sings and the crowd laughs.

“Happy Birthday Jongdae,” Minseok nudges the medtech in teasing. 

“It’s not even my birthday but thanks?” Jongdae chuckles.

“Well then happy pretend birthday?” The doctor offers and they both laugh.

\--

Chanyeol laughs at the noise from outside, having Baekhyun calmed down as well.

They both stand up to approach the door. “So guys can we, like, get out now?” Baekhyun asks, voice still a little gruff.

“Wait one last thing before they open the door,”

Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun and kisses his forehead, and Baekhyun thinks that this was the safest he's ever felt in such a long time.

-end-


End file.
